I find this all amazing, but I disagree with what you are saying here. Our problems are only "petty" to the extent that you think people are worth looking after. I think we should make sure our planet is inhabitable and just. I hope we can explore space *and* make our world better.
I think the better word for our “Earth problems” is insignificant when compared to the universe. On the scale of even the solar system we are nothing more than a piece of gravel with some biological slime on it.
Yeah, this is definitely when you need a fun artist's rendention, instead of a single-pixel discovery.
let's be honest here, they're really looking for galactus just in case to prepare for an imminent attack
Best explanation yet as to why the Telescope is seeing stars: https://thehill.com/policy/technolo...amage-in-micrometeoroid-hit-nasa-report-says/
If a large meteor a gamma ray burst were to wipe out life on Earth, or if the Sun started expanding and the Earth was consumed the galaxy and universe will go on just fine. We really are a tiny spec, less than even Sagan's pale blue dot. What's amazing about seeing stuff JWST is showing us isn't that they are there but that such insignificant beings as us can see them.
Yes, there is probably life somewhere out there. But so what? The distances are massive. Warp speed and wormhole travel are science fiction. The odds of someone finding us and communicating with us, much less visiting are, well, astronomical. The Milky Way is 13.61 billion years old. Let's round off for easy math and say it took 3.61 billion years for intelligent life to arise, leaving us 10 billion years of intelligent life somewhere in the Milky Way. If you generously gave those civilizations 100,000 years before they collapsed, over the course of 10 billion years, you could have 100,000 intelligent civilizations capable of spreading their word across space without ever existing at the same time as another civilization.
